Two former Parramatta Eels players are accused of harbouring semi-automatic weapons and possessing more than half-a-million dollars in cash after dramatic arrests in Sydney's Centennial Park yesterday.

US man 'used Aust tale to hide murder'

An Ohio man accused of shooting his wife and daughter dead and dumping their bodies avoided arrest for almost 20 years because he tricked relatives into thinking the family had moved to Australia, according to US authorities.

Robert Honsch, 70, was arrested in Dalton, Ohio, on July 22.

"The crimes this individual is accused of committing are incredibly heinous," Ohio Attorney-General Mike DeWine said.

Honsch had been living under an alias, re-married and had four children with the new wife when authorities swooped.

According to a search warrant, Honsch tricked relatives of his first wife, Marcia Honsch, when he showed up at their homes in September 1995 and told them he had accepted a job offer in Australia.

Honsch allegedly told the relatives Marcia and his teenage daughter Elizabeth were going to Australia with him.

Related Articles

Police, however, allege Honsch murdered Marcia, 53, and Elizabeth, 16, with single shots to the head.

Elizabeth's body was found behind a music store wrapped in garbage bags and sleeping bags on September 28, 1995, in New Britain, Connecticut and Marcia's body was discovered by a camper eight days later in a Tolland, Massachusetts forest.

It was not until June 3 this year when Marcia's niece filed a missing persons report in New York that investigators were able to identify the two bodies, who were deemed "Jane Does".

Honsch was charged with murder and is expected to be extradited to Massachusetts.